Six reasons why Chinese people will drive the next bull market in bitcoin

Virtual currency veterans. China Internet users Six reasons why Chinese people will drive the next bull market in bitcoin By Gwynn Guilford — April 13, 2013 Whatever the case against bitcoin as an alternative currency, there’s one country where people probably won’t need much persuading to join the craze. Here’s why China could drive a further bit-boom: 1. They’ve already done the whole virtual currency thing—with Q Coin. Or at least 100 million of them did. Back in the mid-2000s, internet company Tencent launched Q Coins, virtual currency with which users could buy items for their avatars. Tencent accepted points won by online gamers in exchange for Q Coins, making it a virtual central banker of sorts since it was issuing Q Coins without hard-currency backing. And users started exchanging Q Coins among themselves, and since they were untraceable by the Chinese government,...